By "differently neuroplastic" I mean that the physiological changes undergone by the brain are different.DaraghM wrote:Could you clarify "differently neuroplastic"? If the same areas of the brain light up in fMRI in proficient L2 speakers and native speakers, how are they different?
Note: I don't hold a strong position on various theories, but genuinely want to tease out the based approach, based on the evidence.
An infant brain is extremely highly connected, and during the early years of life, the primary neurological mechanism for learning is the culling of these connections, connections that never come back.
In later life, the primary neurological mechanism for learning is just a reprogramming and reconfiguration of the remaining connections. There has been relatively recent research that show there is a way that the adult brain can make truly new connections, but it is still a very different mechanism from the infant one.
Of course, neurology isn't psychology, so the fact that the neurological processes are different does not mean that the learning process necessarily is, so I'm not saying that everyone should stop believing that adults can learn like children -- just that it shouldn't be presented as obvious and logical that adults can/should.